It is common knowledge that for most alcoholics and addicts recovery programmes like AA seem to hold out the best hope of conquering addiction. Most of us also know that such programmes usually ...
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It is common knowledge that for most alcoholics and addicts recovery programmes like AA seem to hold out the best hope of conquering addiction. Most of us also know that such programmes usually stress reliance on some sort of “higher power.” This book shows that in fact spiritual development is the central factor in the recovery of a significant percentage of substance abusers, and that spirituality is the lynchpin of many if not most recovery programmes in America. The author of this book visited many treatment centres and interviewed hundreds of recovering alcoholics and addicts, counsellors, and family members, many of whose voices are heard within it. His purpose was to find out just how spirituality figures in the individual's recovery and how it is deployed by the treatment programmes. This book explores the differences among a wide range of programmes: twelve-step, Christian, Muslim, Native American, and those based in Eastern religions.Less

The Soul of Recovery : Uncovering the Spiritual Dimension in the Treatment of Addictions

Christopher Ringwald

Published in print: 2002-06-13

It is common knowledge that for most alcoholics and addicts recovery programmes like AA seem to hold out the best hope of conquering addiction. Most of us also know that such programmes usually stress reliance on some sort of “higher power.” This book shows that in fact spiritual development is the central factor in the recovery of a significant percentage of substance abusers, and that spirituality is the lynchpin of many if not most recovery programmes in America. The author of this book visited many treatment centres and interviewed hundreds of recovering alcoholics and addicts, counsellors, and family members, many of whose voices are heard within it. His purpose was to find out just how spirituality figures in the individual's recovery and how it is deployed by the treatment programmes. This book explores the differences among a wide range of programmes: twelve-step, Christian, Muslim, Native American, and those based in Eastern religions.

This book assembles and analyzes the relevant information pertaining to prisoner reentry: the systems, people, programs, and prospects for implementing a more effective and just system. This chapter ...
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This book assembles and analyzes the relevant information pertaining to prisoner reentry: the systems, people, programs, and prospects for implementing a more effective and just system. This chapter summarizes the data and develops major themes and policy recommendations. No one believes that the current prison and parole system is working. Recent public opinion polls show an increasing dissatisfaction with the purely punitive approach to criminal justice. Data suggest that having to earn and demonstrate readiness for release and being supervised postprison may have some deterrent or rehabilitation benefits—particularly for the most dangerous offenders. Effective programs include therapeutic communities for drug addicts and substance abuse programs with aftercare for alcoholics and drug addicts; cognitive behavioral programs for sex offenders; and adult basic education, vocational education, and prison industries for the general prison population.Less

Introduction and Overview : The Emerging Importance of Prisoner Reentry to Crime and Community

Joan Petersilia

Published in print: 2009-03-24

This book assembles and analyzes the relevant information pertaining to prisoner reentry: the systems, people, programs, and prospects for implementing a more effective and just system. This chapter summarizes the data and develops major themes and policy recommendations. No one believes that the current prison and parole system is working. Recent public opinion polls show an increasing dissatisfaction with the purely punitive approach to criminal justice. Data suggest that having to earn and demonstrate readiness for release and being supervised postprison may have some deterrent or rehabilitation benefits—particularly for the most dangerous offenders. Effective programs include therapeutic communities for drug addicts and substance abuse programs with aftercare for alcoholics and drug addicts; cognitive behavioral programs for sex offenders; and adult basic education, vocational education, and prison industries for the general prison population.

In dealing with alcoholics and addicts, politicians and commentators usually would prefer to go with treatment instead of sending these alcoholics and addicts to jail. Rarely is it considered that ...
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In dealing with alcoholics and addicts, politicians and commentators usually would prefer to go with treatment instead of sending these alcoholics and addicts to jail. Rarely is it considered that these victims should be developed spiritually. When alcoholics, addicts, and other people who need such help attend support groups, they come to realize during their treatment that there is a “high power” in which they have to submit to instead of merely finding solidarity within the group. A large portion of the millions of Americans who are treated for alcoholism or addiction of substances are advised to foster a spiritual life through participating in fellowship activities like the Twelve-Step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. This chapter introduces the notion of spirituality and how this is used to help people who practice substance abuse.Less

Addictions, Spiritual Solutions, and the Insights of Alcoholics Anonymous

Cristopher D. Ringwald

Published in print: 2002-06-13

In dealing with alcoholics and addicts, politicians and commentators usually would prefer to go with treatment instead of sending these alcoholics and addicts to jail. Rarely is it considered that these victims should be developed spiritually. When alcoholics, addicts, and other people who need such help attend support groups, they come to realize during their treatment that there is a “high power” in which they have to submit to instead of merely finding solidarity within the group. A large portion of the millions of Americans who are treated for alcoholism or addiction of substances are advised to foster a spiritual life through participating in fellowship activities like the Twelve-Step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. This chapter introduces the notion of spirituality and how this is used to help people who practice substance abuse.

Preserving belief in moral responsibility requires blocking deeper inquiry into the systemic causes of behavior. This refusal to consider causal history is clearest in the criminal justice system, ...
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Preserving belief in moral responsibility requires blocking deeper inquiry into the systemic causes of behavior. This refusal to consider causal history is clearest in the criminal justice system, but can also be found among philosophers (for example, those who champion the “plateau” of moral responsibility). The insistence on not looking deeper and in greater detail at the subtle causes of behavior is a common feature of both libertarian and compatibilist accounts of moral responsibility. When moral responsibility is represented as a “basic right,” then scrutiny of the differences among those to whom moral responsibility is attributed is seen as a threat to the universal acknowledgment of human rights. Restrictions on deeper inquiry are built into the moral responsibility system.Less

Myopic Moral Responsibility

Bruce N. Waller

Published in print: 2015-01-08

Preserving belief in moral responsibility requires blocking deeper inquiry into the systemic causes of behavior. This refusal to consider causal history is clearest in the criminal justice system, but can also be found among philosophers (for example, those who champion the “plateau” of moral responsibility). The insistence on not looking deeper and in greater detail at the subtle causes of behavior is a common feature of both libertarian and compatibilist accounts of moral responsibility. When moral responsibility is represented as a “basic right,” then scrutiny of the differences among those to whom moral responsibility is attributed is seen as a threat to the universal acknowledgment of human rights. Restrictions on deeper inquiry are built into the moral responsibility system.

Adaptations of the reward circuit to intermittent and chronic supraphysiological stimulation by drugs increase reward thresholds. As a consequence, response to non-drug reinforcers in individuals ...
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Adaptations of the reward circuit to intermittent and chronic supraphysiological stimulation by drugs increase reward thresholds. As a consequence, response to non-drug reinforcers in individuals with chronic drug use or addiction, may be decreased. Clinical symptoms include anhedonia and compulsive drug use, at the expense of the attainment of other rewarding experiences and despite detrimental consequences to the individual's functioning. While most addiction studies focus on the increased valuation of drug reward and drug-related cues, this chapter instead reviews the behavioural and neurobiological evidence for decreased valuation of non-drug reinforcers and cues. Future research should directly address the following question: is processing of drug reward enhanced at the expense of non drug-related reward (at least in certain subgroups of addicted individuals)? Or are these two processes independent?Less

Abnormalities in monetary and other non-drug reward processing in drug addiction

Rita Z. Goldstein

Published in print: 2011-03-24

Adaptations of the reward circuit to intermittent and chronic supraphysiological stimulation by drugs increase reward thresholds. As a consequence, response to non-drug reinforcers in individuals with chronic drug use or addiction, may be decreased. Clinical symptoms include anhedonia and compulsive drug use, at the expense of the attainment of other rewarding experiences and despite detrimental consequences to the individual's functioning. While most addiction studies focus on the increased valuation of drug reward and drug-related cues, this chapter instead reviews the behavioural and neurobiological evidence for decreased valuation of non-drug reinforcers and cues. Future research should directly address the following question: is processing of drug reward enhanced at the expense of non drug-related reward (at least in certain subgroups of addicted individuals)? Or are these two processes independent?

Certain behaviors during pregnancy can harm the developing fetus in utero. In some states, if the woman’s behavior during pregnancy causes her to miscarry, have a stillbirth, or have a child with ...
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Certain behaviors during pregnancy can harm the developing fetus in utero. In some states, if the woman’s behavior during pregnancy causes her to miscarry, have a stillbirth, or have a child with avoidable health problems, the woman may face criminal charges; she may be sent to jail. Yet the woman could have avoided criminal sanctions by availing herself of the legal option of abortion. It may seem inconsistent to allow women to choose abortion, which kills the fetus, while at the same time holding them criminally responsible for imposing a lesser harm on the child after birth. The interest view explains why there is no inconsistency. Although it denies that fetuses, at least in early gestation, have no interests and no rights, it acknowledges the interests of born children in having a healthy existence, interests that can be thwarted by maternal behavior during pregnancy. However, this chapter recognizes the moral obligations of pregnant women who do not abort their future children, it rejects a criminal justice approach to the public health problem of substance abuse in pregnancy, because this approach does nothing to protect children and nothing to help women get over their addictions.Less

Maternal–Fetal Conflict

Bonnie Steinbock

Published in print: 2011-07-11

Certain behaviors during pregnancy can harm the developing fetus in utero. In some states, if the woman’s behavior during pregnancy causes her to miscarry, have a stillbirth, or have a child with avoidable health problems, the woman may face criminal charges; she may be sent to jail. Yet the woman could have avoided criminal sanctions by availing herself of the legal option of abortion. It may seem inconsistent to allow women to choose abortion, which kills the fetus, while at the same time holding them criminally responsible for imposing a lesser harm on the child after birth. The interest view explains why there is no inconsistency. Although it denies that fetuses, at least in early gestation, have no interests and no rights, it acknowledges the interests of born children in having a healthy existence, interests that can be thwarted by maternal behavior during pregnancy. However, this chapter recognizes the moral obligations of pregnant women who do not abort their future children, it rejects a criminal justice approach to the public health problem of substance abuse in pregnancy, because this approach does nothing to protect children and nothing to help women get over their addictions.

This chapter takes the same natural science approach to addiction that has proven useful in the physical sciences, and shows that clinic addicts are much less likely to stop using drugs than ...
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This chapter takes the same natural science approach to addiction that has proven useful in the physical sciences, and shows that clinic addicts are much less likely to stop using drugs than nonclinic addicts. It suggests that the correlates of quitting are largely everyday events—the sort of occurrences which influence most decisions—and also illustrates that drug use will often fluctuate between periods of heavy use and periods of abstinence. Moreover, the chapter demonstrates that social factors and values significantly play in drug use. The applied implications of the analysis it presents are that prevention programs should enhance nondrug interests and that treatment programs should focus on decreasing the relative reward value of the drug.Less

Addiction: A Latent Property of the Dynamics of Choice

Gene M. Heyman

Published in print: 2010-02-05

This chapter takes the same natural science approach to addiction that has proven useful in the physical sciences, and shows that clinic addicts are much less likely to stop using drugs than nonclinic addicts. It suggests that the correlates of quitting are largely everyday events—the sort of occurrences which influence most decisions—and also illustrates that drug use will often fluctuate between periods of heavy use and periods of abstinence. Moreover, the chapter demonstrates that social factors and values significantly play in drug use. The applied implications of the analysis it presents are that prevention programs should enhance nondrug interests and that treatment programs should focus on decreasing the relative reward value of the drug.

A willing addict is one who reflectively endorses their addiction. Some say that there are no willing addicts, only unwilling addicts who are trying to stop but not succeeding, or resigned addicts ...
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A willing addict is one who reflectively endorses their addiction. Some say that there are no willing addicts, only unwilling addicts who are trying to stop but not succeeding, or resigned addicts who are so demoralized they have stopped trying to stop. Willing addiction reminds us that addiction is a phenomenon that involves a person-with-a-lifestyle-inside-an-ecology, that there are good-making features of using even addictively, and that addiction involves many of the same complex, negotiated features (experiential, personal, interpersonal, structural, and cultural) of other person-level lifestyle choices. Willing addiction shows that concepts such as choice, voluntariness, and reflective endorsement have a place in the psychology and phenomenology of addiction. There are implications for the psych-bio-politics of addiction and for the implausible idea that addiction is a brain disorder. Addiction is not a brain disorder, although certain aspects or features of addiction involve brain disorders.Less

Willing addicts? Drinkers, dandies, druggies, and other Dionysians

Owen Flanagan

Published in print: 2016-09-22

A willing addict is one who reflectively endorses their addiction. Some say that there are no willing addicts, only unwilling addicts who are trying to stop but not succeeding, or resigned addicts who are so demoralized they have stopped trying to stop. Willing addiction reminds us that addiction is a phenomenon that involves a person-with-a-lifestyle-inside-an-ecology, that there are good-making features of using even addictively, and that addiction involves many of the same complex, negotiated features (experiential, personal, interpersonal, structural, and cultural) of other person-level lifestyle choices. Willing addiction shows that concepts such as choice, voluntariness, and reflective endorsement have a place in the psychology and phenomenology of addiction. There are implications for the psych-bio-politics of addiction and for the implausible idea that addiction is a brain disorder. Addiction is not a brain disorder, although certain aspects or features of addiction involve brain disorders.

Of the some sixty thousand vacant properties in Philadelphia, half of them are abandoned row houses. Taken as a whole, these derelict homes symbolize the city's plight in the wake of industrial ...
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Of the some sixty thousand vacant properties in Philadelphia, half of them are abandoned row houses. Taken as a whole, these derelict homes symbolize the city's plight in the wake of industrial decline. But a closer look reveals a remarkable new phenomenon—street-level entrepreneurs repurposing hundreds of these empty houses as facilities for recovering addicts and alcoholics. This book is a study of this recovery house movement and its place in the new urban order wrought by welfare reform. To find out what life is like in these recovery houses, it goes inside one particular home in the Kensington neighborhood. Operating without a license and unregulated by any government office, the recovery house provides food, shelter, company, and a bracing self-help philosophy to addicts in an area saturated with drugs and devastated by poverty. From this starkly vivid close-up, the book widens the lens to reveal the intricate relationships the recovery houses have forged with public welfare, the formal drug treatment sector, criminal justice institutions, and the local government.Less

How It Works : Recovering Citizens in Post-Welfare Philadelphia

Robert P. Fairbanks

Published in print: 2009-09-15

Of the some sixty thousand vacant properties in Philadelphia, half of them are abandoned row houses. Taken as a whole, these derelict homes symbolize the city's plight in the wake of industrial decline. But a closer look reveals a remarkable new phenomenon—street-level entrepreneurs repurposing hundreds of these empty houses as facilities for recovering addicts and alcoholics. This book is a study of this recovery house movement and its place in the new urban order wrought by welfare reform. To find out what life is like in these recovery houses, it goes inside one particular home in the Kensington neighborhood. Operating without a license and unregulated by any government office, the recovery house provides food, shelter, company, and a bracing self-help philosophy to addicts in an area saturated with drugs and devastated by poverty. From this starkly vivid close-up, the book widens the lens to reveal the intricate relationships the recovery houses have forged with public welfare, the formal drug treatment sector, criminal justice institutions, and the local government.

This chapter looks at what is known about the ways in which parents' drug use may influence the lives of their children, and the challenges faced by those seeking to meet these children's needs. It ...
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This chapter looks at what is known about the ways in which parents' drug use may influence the lives of their children, and the challenges faced by those seeking to meet these children's needs. It argues that the needs of children and families have attracted too little attention because the policy focus has been elsewhere – on reducing the risk of acquiring and spreading HIV infection, and on reducing drug-related crime. The chapter highlights one of the ‘thorniest’ questions facing professionals: how much adversity is it tolerable for children to experience at the hands of their addict parents?Less

Meeting the needs of children whose parents have a serious drug problem

Neil McKeganeyMarina Barnard

Published in print: 2007-05-16

This chapter looks at what is known about the ways in which parents' drug use may influence the lives of their children, and the challenges faced by those seeking to meet these children's needs. It argues that the needs of children and families have attracted too little attention because the policy focus has been elsewhere – on reducing the risk of acquiring and spreading HIV infection, and on reducing drug-related crime. The chapter highlights one of the ‘thorniest’ questions facing professionals: how much adversity is it tolerable for children to experience at the hands of their addict parents?